Mastering is supposed to enhanceand even energize your mixes, so the process needs to be all about you and your music. In other words—get selfish. The perfect mastering engineer for you is someone who truly understands what your music is about, and who is willing to listen intently and seriously to your aural wishes.

In addition to reviews of five hotnew products, we've also solicited the brainiacs at my Sound, Studio,and Stage forum to reveal their secrets on guitar recording—andthey came through with some pretty amazing info (once you try MikeShelton’s Mid/Side recording technique,you may never record guitars the same way again).

Pitch shifting digital audio is hard to do, but can accomplish tasks such as transposing an instrumental track so it fits a vocalist's range to creating crazy special effects by transposing a signal beyond any rational amount. zplane has specialized in high-quality pitch-shifting algorithms, and licensed those algorithms to various manufacturers. Read more.